22 Social Customs &c. of the Karens. [No. 1, 
too bony for his table. Dogs are not eaten by the Southern Karens, 
but they are as great delicacies in the Bghai country as they are in 
China. 
To this great mass of animated nature, the whole vegetable king- 
dom is made to serve as greens. Nearly every weed is a vegetable, 
and the young shoots of the largest trees serve as spinage. They are 
so careless about what they gather for greens, that one of our young 
teachers poisoned himself, not long ago, by the vegetable curry he 
made by the way, while travelling. i 
Besides game, the Karens raise hogs and fowls for home consump- 
tion as well as for sale, and on festive occasions, those who are able, 
purchase and kill a buffalo or ox; so they do not seem to lack for 
animal food. Still, they may be often seen sitting down to rice and 
vegetable curry, with perhaps a taste of dried fish, and they certainly 
do not eat as much animal food as Huropeans. They lve much lke 
the wild beasts of the forest. When chance, or something very like 
it, sends them a whole beast, they eat meat to surfeit; and then they 
live on vegetables and rice, till the wheel of fortune tums round 
again. 
The meat is often cut into small pieces and boiled in curry; but it 
is also frequently roasted or grilled. Fish is often dried, as is also the 
flesh of game sometimes ; but dried so imperfectly, that it usually has 
a very bad odour. 
The Karens distil from rice or millet a kind of whiskey, of which 
men, women, and children often drink to intoxication. But, like their 
meat, this too they have not on hand constantly ; and they are sober 
a great part of the year, because they cannot get anything to drink to 
be intoxicated. 
In the matter of quantity, they take more food at a meal than 
Europeans ; and yet, if labouring hard, require to eat more frequently: 
I have often walked with them, up hill and down; and though I 
could walk all day, from sunrise to sunset, after an early breakfast 
with a couple of crackers, and water from the brook by the way ; the 
Karens were always knocked up by noon; and had to stop and eat a 
hearty meal, before they were able to proceed. This is true of all the 
natives in the country ; but is not quite understood by some of our 
medical men. Natives are sometimes taken into the hospitals, and 
